I think a night with grandma reset Malka a little. It still took an hour post-stories/singing to get her to go to sleep, but we did not have to tolerate nearly as much caterwauling as we had been.

Her room is finally basically "finished." My husband installed an overhead light and fan (too.much.money) and there was some craziness about the electrically switches he had to install so they look not that great (apparently it is very hard to find a dual light/fan control that will dim CF lights, so he had to make one himself, and built the wrong housing for it somehow, so there are still wires showing, but at least they are inaccessible for small fingers) and there are some crazy wires on the ceiling. I completed her wall of pictures last night - four dogs, a duck, a turkey, some other kind of bird, a small painting my sister brought me from Africa of a little girl, a professional picture of Malka and her cousin at 10 months, and a copy of the "today I will be as happy as a bird with a french fry" print. There's also a shelf with my husband's pocket dragon collection up high and a few hamsas. The new rug looks great. It looks seriously cheerful in there!

Sweet! Do you feel completely full of energy and like you could do anything right now?

Well, I didn't sleep 11 hours straight, because my body woke me up at usual Malka waking time and it took a while to force myself back to sleep. Then when I got up for real I felt totally dead and exhausted and dragged myself through the rest of the day! If I didn't have a work thing to go to in the afternoon, I would've have made it a whole day of lounging around and taking grown-up naps. I think it'll actually take a bunch of catch-up sleep before I feel caught up.

Aw.. *hugs* I do the same thing. The one night in recorded history where Violet slept from a decent hour to a decent hour (8pm-7am all the way through without waking, she had a random fever that I think might explain it), I kept waking up all nervous making sure that the baby monitor was connected and at 4am I even sneaked downstairs and made sure she was still breathing because I was certain she must've died!! Now she sleeps from 7 or 8 until 4am once every 2-3 days, but when it happened she hadn't slept more than like 6 hours in a stretch so it was very weird.

So, last night = 6+ hours of sleep for Freya, from 8:30ish to just before 3:00. Holy mother of God, I slept for more than 45 minutes in a row! Woot! Now, we didn't go to bed until about 11, since she's been waking up then, even on a good night, but still. I woke up once between about 11:30 and 3:00, so not bad for me.

Thennnnnnn, she decided to nurse and cry and nurse and sleep then wake up after two minutes and pull nipples and generally just have a rough time..for two hours. So, I don't know what that's about. I went back to sleep just before 5 and then she woke again at 5:40. At that point, I just let her nurse and fall asleep (was cutting her off before sleeping before) until she woke for good about 7. 11-5 are the hours we're trying to night wean. She often has a good nurse in the early morning time, say 5:15, and drifts back to a pretty solid sleep for another 45 minutes or so. It seemed silly to me to eliminate that sleep.

So just two wakings, which has happened never. Pretty crappy sleep still for me, but very nice to wake up the first time and see the clock say 2:57 instead of 12:30. Day 4 today, then tomorrow comes the experiment with removing boobies altogether at night time and just comforting back to sleep. Should be a blast. Wednesday morning we are supposed to go to this vegetarian mamas group that we just discovered, so hopefully we will get at least a bit of sleep Tues night. Hoping that another week sees us in a better place. If she sleeps 6 hours tonight, I think I will kiss the ground in the morning.

nneJ, can you have K be the one who comforts her down to sleep? My friends did it with Daddy comforting and it was easier because baby knew there were no boobies to be had. Plus that way you could get a night's sleep. Honestly, I get exhausted just reading about your evenings.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

Thanks all. Back to I think 4 wakes, maybe 5 last night. Better still in some ways but tougher physically than just rolling over. Still having trouble falling asleep myself, so then she's not getting in the crib in a timely manner sometimes and I think that might be messing her up some. Going to keep on with me on nights til the weekend, then if she's still waking lots maybe k will take a night for me. Will see what happens when boobies are removed from the equation. Not looking forward to seeing teeny hands desperately signing "boobies".

I'm going to ask her. I know there is a lot of shame in our AP circles about nightweaning, so I don't know if she wants anyone to know who she is. Last time she mentioned it at a group, two of the women said basically "No one sleeps, so suck it up." It was incredibly judgmental and unsupportive.

Leela wakes up just once a night for the most part and that is doable. If she woke up more than that, it would affect my ability to function and I'd nightwean.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

Thanks. This is the attitude I've been encountering from some of the LLL ladies (who previously were wonderfully supportive). Maybe the other women can hack waking 7-8 x's/night, but my old bones apparently can't. Even now, feeling ever slightly better. Would love to be able to chat with someone who's been through this, and pick her brain as we get to the tough part.

Going to hold off one more day on the no-boobies-at-all, as I'm really keen on this meetup tomorrow and don't want to have to work around extra-super-more-tired-than-usual. :)

I have a friend you could talk to as well.. She is very involved with her local LLL and has worked with BFing moms doing LC training and night weaned herself around 10 or 12 months and found that it worked much better for their family. I believe they continued to cosleep and nurse during the day for a while thereafter (and may be still - her daughter is 23mo). You can PM me on FB if you'd like me to virtual-introduce you.

Refinnej, we were in a similar situation as you, not as bad, but grey was waking at least every two hurs to nurse until we out him in his room. If he wakes up before 4, Nate gets him back to sleep. If I go in, he demands to nurse and won't go back to sleep. I don't know how you are still doing it. The biggest thing to remember from all the AP moms or anyone, you have your own family to deal with. Do what is best for you! I have felt so pressured to not do things and then tried them and it is so much better. Fr instance, I thought I was a jerk if I didn't cosleep, well, no one was sleeping and now we all are!

OMG, stop the bus, I got R to sleep without boobie last night!! That makes yesterday the second time in over 4.5 years that I got a day off from breastfeeding. This was a fluke, though, I think. He was tired because we'd been out all day and I only had to sit in the dark with him for a while. B was there, too, and a funny conversation ensued:B: I love you.R: I love you, too.B: *sounding a bit miffed* Raygold, I was saying 'I love you' to Crabby.R: I love you, too, Crabby.

Another three hour bedtime last night - she finally slept at midnight. Then up at 5, husband went in to feed and soothe her and fell back asleep with her, but she was thrashy the rest of the early morning and totally up before 8. Unreasonable. Then my husband brought her to a playdate at my work (guys I am such a genius I made it part of my job to host a monthly baby/toddler playdate, today was the first one) and was a zombie - only kid who cried during the playdate, and she cried multiple times.